


Through the Storm

by Finn_The_Leafman



Category: Epic (2013)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Post-Movie, Ronin tending to an injured Finn, The Epic fandom is dead but I've still got this story, rain is fatal to leafmen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-03
Updated: 2019-04-03
Packaged: 2020-01-04 04:27:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18336164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Finn_The_Leafman/pseuds/Finn_The_Leafman
Summary: Finn and Ronin went out for what they thought was going to be an ordinary patrol, but things just keep getting worse. Luckily they find some help and Ronin might just find something else along the way.





	Through the Storm

There was an ambush.

They had gone out on a small patrol consisting of Ronin, Finn, and a couple of other leafmen had gone out on their birds, close to Boggan territory, to make sure that they weren’t rotting any land that they shouldn’t be. Finn had spotted the gray clouds and didn’t like the prospect of getting rained on, so he suggested that they turn back. Ronin had agreed, but as they turned their backs to the decayed forest of wrathwood, the boggans swarmed.

What followed next was only a blur to all of them, a mess of feathers and blood. Finn saw a leafman fall to the forest floor and aimed to catch him, but he was swarmed by boggans.

“Finn!” Ronin called out, sounding panicked. He drew his sword and slashed through the boggans, visions of Soren flashing through his head. He wasn’t going to let Finn go out in the same way. He reached for his closest friend, grabbing onto his hand.

Ronin could hardly see a thing in the mass of grackle feathers flying everywhere, but the hand he felt was that of a leafman, with a familiar bracer attached. One yank and Finn was off his bird, Sorrel. Said bird made a nimble escape to preserve its own life, leaving flecks of blood behind. Ronin commanded his bird to get them away while he tried to hoist Finn up. He didn’t even pause to look at the condition he was in, all Ronin saw was blood.

And then the rain came, and the wind picked up. Ronin’s faithful bird battled against it. Behind them he could hear the battle cries of boggans and the screeching of grackles, though they also seemed to be struggling against the wind. 

Finally, Finn had been secured in the saddle behind Ronin. He held tight to Ronin’s waist, unusually quiet. Now that he wasn’t focusing on Finn, he could try and get them all to safety. Ronin steered the bird up, into the trees, maybe he could lose them there, amongst the leaves. 

There were some tight spots to go through, but he did manage to lose them. He heard an alarmed noise from his bird and it suddenly jerked, knocking both riders off of it. As Ronin fell, he could see that his bird had been hit with an arrow. It had hurried off without it’s riders. Quickly, Ronin positioned himself so that he took the brunt of the fall. Finn was hurt already. 

The fall hurt his shoulder bad, but he wasn’t concerned about that right now. This was the first chance he had to look Finn over. He righted himself and took Finn in his arms. What he saw wasn’t pretty. His shoulder seems to have gotten the worst of it. It looks like he had been cut deep with a spear. Some rot had bubbled up on his chest where he had been stuck with rot staffs and a few arrows stuck out from his back.

Panic seized Ronin when he noticed just how hurt his friend was. Was he even breathing? Was he even alive!?

“Finn!?” There was a worried tone to the General’s voice that was hardly ever heard. He placed a hand to Finn’s face, just under his nose. He could feel the Leafman breathing against his fingers.

“mm… still here…”  He spoke in a voice that could barely be heard over the rain.  “Is… is that rain? arre we… trapped?” 

Finn wasn’t all there, but he was a little aware of the situation. Ronin struggled to find a way out, something that would make the answer to that question ‘No’. He looked around desperately. Finn watched this, knowing what his closest friend was thinking.

“mm… going to die, arnt I?”  He said. He could already feel himself fading.

“No!” The exclamation was forceful as if Ronin were ordering Finn not to die on him. The other Leafman just stayed silent. This prompted Ronin to look harder. He peered over the branch. He could see a black object attached to one of the branches nearby. It certainly didn’t look like something natural. Then he recognized it.

“Of course, The stomper!” Ronin gathered Finn in his arms and stood, “We’re going to need to go out in the rain again, only for a moment.” Ronin knew how much his friend hated the rain. Finn gave a little hum in response. Ronin backed up and in one leap, they had made it to another branch, Luckily this one seemed dry as well, protected by the branches above it.

The camera that Ronin had spotted was mounted into the tree, and facing the other way. Ronin would need to attract the Stomper’s attention through noise. Carefully, he laid Finn at the base of the branch and went over near the camera.

“Stomper!” He called as loud as he could. What was the stomper’s name, what was it? What was it? “Bomba!” He repeated this call several times, a look of panic on his face. He wasn’t getting through.

Bomba was at his home, seemingly lost in thought. He sat at his study, several books open around him and sheets of paper with various notes scrawled on them all around him.

“BOMBA!” Ronin shouted, so loudly that he could feel it damage his throat. It would be worth it if Finn got help.

The professor jolted from his desk. He could swear he heard his name. He stood from his chair and went into the camera room, checking each one to see if maybe one of the leafmen wanted to talk to him about something, though he didn’t think they would considering the terrible storm going on outside.

Ronin didn’t give up, he still kept shouting. “Bomba! Please, Help!” Finn watched through blurry, half closed eyes. He could only see the shape of Ronin.

Bomba jumped once more when he heard a voice. Quickly, he located which camera it had come from and swiveled it around. What he saw, shocked him. Ronin, the leafman general, was there and there was a look on his face that the man had never seen before. He looked frightened. Then Bomba noticed the figure in the back. This was definitely the leafman that needed help.

“I’m here!” He spoke through the camera, watching Ronin’s expression change to one of relief. “I’m guessing you need a rescue mission, r-right?”

Ronin nodded, “My friend is injured, badly. Please hurry. I… I don’t know how long he’ll last. Please bring something to keep us out of the rain. It can be lethal to us.”

That was all Bomba needed to hear, “O-o-on my way!” And he left his desk to gather a few things. He grabbed a bug jar, that had holes poked in the lid, from a shelf in his study and took the lid off. Then he went to his closet and grabbing a cloth, sticking it at the bottom. That’ll have to do. He couldn’t waste any more time. He went out the door and into the rain. He knew exactly where that camera had been placed, he headed that way.

Meanwhile, for Ronin, there was nothing left to do but wait. He went to Finn’s side again, snapping off the shafts of the arrows so only the arrowheads dug into his back. It was best not to remove them or he would bleed to death. He held his closest friend in his arms while scanning for Bomba. “Don’t die on me Finn… Don’t die on me…” He kept muttering. He didn’t have to wait too long, Stompers can be quick when they really want to be.

Soon Bomba emerged into Ronin’s line of sight, bug jar in hand. He opened the lid and angled it so that water won’t get inside and without even a cue from Bomba, Ronin gathered Finn up and lept into the jar. Slowly, Bomba put the lid back on and turned the jar right side up. Ronin was able to move along with the jar so that eventually he settled on the bottom with Finn.

Bomba took this moment to look at the two with his helmet. Finn was even worse than he thought. “Oh dear…” He muttered and turned, heading home. He tried his best to hold the jar still, shaking it would disturb the leafmen inside.

Ronin held Finn close to him, watching the world pass by in a blur. Stompers were capable of going fast if they really needed to, it seemed. Ronin turned his attention to his injured second in command, trying to stop the bleeding from his wounds as much as he can.

“Don’t die on me Finn… don’t you die on me…” He used the cloth he was surrounded by to help slow the bleeding by applying pressure to the wound. He had already decided that he wasn’t going to remove the arrow heads until they got to Bomba’s place and the wound’s could be treated right then.

Ronin relaxed a little as soon as Finn was in stable condition, but he was still on alert. He wasn’t going to let Finn’s life slip away from him like he had let Tara’s. He was like this the entire way to Bomba’s house.


End file.
